Reckless
by Kicho-Keynote
Summary: One mission gone wrong and his ideas on things changed completely after he failed, or rather refused, to kill one person. Just one person…Why couldn't he kill her?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

 **Summary: Neji is a created humanoid-robot made for the soul purpose of destruction. But one mission gone wrong and his ideas on things changed completely after he failed, or rather refused, to kill one person. Just one person…Why couldn't he kill her?**

 **Rating: T for violent scenes and mild language**

* * *

 **Reckless**

" _Serendipity"  
The effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something  
truly wonderful, especially while looking for  
something entirely  
unrelated_

* * *

We were created to kill. Not love. Love was an impossible thing for my kind. My family, as that silly bespectacled girl would say, were not allowed, or rather, programmed to have any feelings of love. The only ones we, probably, truly cared for was each other, and that's said in the aspect of not wanting to have to go through the trouble of finding and returning the rubble the member was sure to become. Then, _if_ said rubble was able to be salvaged the attitude towards them would be of exactly that, salvaged garbage. It was harsh but true. And no, it wasn't that we had no ability _to_ feel – we could just as easily feel anything a human could feel. It was just that it was better for us if we didn't feel anything. Still, our creator, our savior as he called himself, he made sure that we were able to feel every emotion a human could feel with a considerably low capacity for things as trivial as love, favoritism and all other emotions that would possibly be a weakness. So, with that being said, I couldn't fathom a good enough excuse for why I shielded this girl's existence.

Looking at her, there was no guarantee that she would even live for long and yet here I was standing above her, preventing her from being seen, masking her small presence with the sheer might of my own. And for what, a frail girl with big brown eyes? I almost had to stifle a laugh at my own idiocy.

I looked back once again and was surprised to see her still sitting there, staring at me curiously, almost as if she was waiting for me to do something else. I sighed, already feeling tired from this sudden "companion" I picked up, then turned and tried to shoo her away.

That failed.

She was, for some reason, rather stubborn and seemed to have settled for sitting in the pile of debris that once was her house. Despite the tears that still streamed down her cheeks, signaling her fear, and the tight grip she had on the dead man's hands, she strongly held her ground, possibly expecting to be killed along with her husband – I presumed – and, with a quick glance towards my slowly disappearing team, I confirmed that the sudden pang in my heart was due to the thought of being labeled either a rouge or a defect, not to knowing that she might die.

So I turned with every mind to leave when I heard it. The small sobbing sound of either relief or depression I wasn't sure but I wasn't about to turn to find out.

"Don't leave me." I heard her softly whine, and I turned, innocently thinking she was stupid enough to be talking about me, but was ruthlessly pulled out of my delusions when I saw her once bigger frame, now small and frailly bending over the body of the deceased.

I approached her then, eyes scanning her and what was around her immediately before coming to a conclusion: If not me, then she was talking to the dead man. But that made no since. He was dead. The bullet through his skull was enough proof for that. So it didn't make since that she was speaking to him when he was clearly never going to answer.

"Excuse me –"

"Go away!" She screamed. "Just…go away. Please…"

"But if you stay here you'll surly die." I looked up and scanned the area before her and nodded, knowing how right I was before I saw it. "There's a rearguard on their way here now. They are about half a mile away. If you do not leave now…"

I stopped talking this time around instead of being cut off and couldn't help but stare hopelessly into the dark pits that were her eyes. It was if she had me locked in some kind of spell, one where, if our eyes met, I became as still as stone…kind of like Medusa just without the death and pain. Granted, one sweep around the area would easily shut down that "no death or pain" statement I had just made.

"Just leave." She whispered this time. But, when I didn't move, she started screaming again. "Leave! Let me be! You took one life from me already…" she gasped as if she was out of breath before exhaling the shaky breath almost like she was trying to calm herself. "What else do you want from me?"

Now I was confused. There was a lot of things I understood about humans. Not just because I was made to be as like them as possible either. No, that knowledge was all from observations of the ones I was surrounded by. From watching them I came to understand that, in desperate times, people tend to do the most unlikely things if it meant they could possibly live through their situation. However, from what I was seeing, she seemed to have given up completely on surviving.

"Is staying with a dead man really worth losing your own life?"

"Fuck off." She growled, hostility obviously present now.

…I could take her though.

"But he is dead. Staying here would only insure your own death. Wouldn't that be pointless? If you wanted to die earlier then you could have easily made yourself known by the others I had with me. They wouldn't hesitate to kill you –"

"Then why didn't you?" She asked, catching me off guard. "Why didn't you kill me? You already shot my husband dead so what's the point of saving me…Why did you save me?"

I stared at her, still confused, but this time not from what she was doing but rather what I was doing. Why did I save her? Why was I still trying to save her? Everything I was doing was so…wrong. It was so far past disobeying my orders that I was sure my actions would put me nowhere else besides the scrap pile. I had to be crazy. There had to be something wrong with my system. I mean, I know we were designed to act as much like humans as possible, but for me to go so far as to make decisions without even thinking? That had to be some flaw in my creation.

"What's your name?" she asked – a rather sudden thing to do. I didn't even have enough time to answer her first question, not that I had the means to do so.

"N3-1J6 –"

"Stop." She intervened, waving her bloody hand around before she brought it down again. "Just stop. It already sounds ridiculous. I'll just call you…" She paused and looked down at the body in her hands, smiling softly at the man before her before sighing. "Neji."

"Neji?"

"Because you have a loose screw somewhere. Of that I'm sure."

"Ah! Neji. I understand. I too think something is wrong with me. Because…"

"Because what?"

"Shh." I hushed her, staring off into the distance as everything hit me all at once.

It was the rearguard, I was positive of that, and they had noticed me. With my team nowhere near me, there was no doubt they were confused as to why I was still here. I scoffed then turned to the girl before me. Of course she was still here. Still holding onto that dead weight desperately. It was annoying really. Granted I didn't know why I spared her life to begin with, it still bothered me that, after all the risks I had took, she still stayed here. I warned her, I helped her and all she repaid me with was stubbornly staying here for the next group to kill her off instead.

"What is your name?" I asked, clearly confusing her even more.

"Why should I tell you?" She bit back.

"I told you mine."

"I'm the one who gave you the name? What you were giving me was your serial number or something."

"That's my name!" I nearly yelled, but stopped to look up once again. I could almost make out faces now. "Well, whatever your name is, you're going to have to forgive me for this."

"Forgive you for wh– Hey!" She screeched, much too loud for my likings as I threw a piece of debris over her – a caved in roof piece if I'm not mistaken – before shushing her once more just before the scouter fully approached me.

"Everything alright?" He asked in the most monotone voice ever.

Looking at him, the way he was dressed, the pieces of metal sticking out on the arms instead of the artificial skin, I could easily tell that he was one of the earlier, less modernized models. Granted they were slightly tougher since they didn't have to deal with pain and emotion, they were still weaker in comparison to me and my kind. So tricking him before the others got here would be easy.

"Everything is just fine. I was just scouting the area and didn't realize that my team had moved on. I waited since I knew another team would be by soon."

"State your serial number." He blinked, eyes gleaming read as he was clearly prepared to record my words – really our creator shouldn't have made my kind so lifelike _and_ smart.

"N3-1J6I-00H."

"Number code recognized." Came another voice from within him just before he blinked back to reality. "N3-1J6I-00H. Stay here. When we are ready to leave we will take you with us. Your squadron is being notified on your find and will meet up with you at the checkpoint."

"What are we staying for?" I asked, making him pause as he went to arranging his thoughts. That was the flaw about these bots. They were slow on pickup and no matter how many times they could be reprogrammed, they were never quite as successful as the later brands such as myself, and –

"We will scout the area for any survivors." He finally answered – though it was a recording of what his General said. "Any and all survivors must be eliminated. No one can be left alive to know that JNA was in charge of these raids. Understood?"

He blinked back again, before facing me and bowing slightly. "All questions answered. I will go on now. I will scout the area. N3-1J61-00 you are to stay –"

He stopped talking, eyes suddenly going alert before he turned to the rubble beside me, making my "pulse" – as that same bespectacled woman calls it – raise. I thought that maybe I was just seeing things and that I was just being paranoid, but when I turned and saw what he saw, the slight shift of the rubble before settling in, I knew that what he saw was the exact thing I was trying to hide for sure.

"Possible life form detected." He said in that same monotonous voice. And I stayed still, wondering if I should do something to stop him from finding her or if I should just leave her to her own glorified death. After all, she had been asking to be left alone despite my warnings before. She must have been prepared to die.

Yet, when the roof was removed and I saw her again, her big brown eyes closing to the sudden assault of sun on her face, I felt that same urge build up beneath me. And when she blinked away the dirt and dust, she found me, her eyes locking on my form almost instantly before finally recognizing the other bot next to me.

"Ah." She whispered before swiftly turning into the dead man on her lap, protecting him even in her last moments it seemed.

Sighing, I looked away, knowing I couldn't bear to see her die so harshly after I had went through the trouble of trying to hide her, but felt a sudden pang of…guilt (?) run through me that had me turning back to see her looking up at me from her crouching position, almost looking like she was…begging me…

"Survivor detected!" The Bot beside me yelled as he aimed his gun at her, but long before he could take the shot, I reached for him in a sort of panic, quickly moving the gun towards the air before I completely twisted his arm out of the socket.

Unsurprisingly, he moved to attack her again, gun or no gun and from him a loud siren rung, alerting the others that he was no doubt with. This time, I should have moved aside and let him just kill her. I really should have…but I couldn't. For some strange reason, I couldn't find it in me to allow this girl who clearly wanted to die, to die. So I stopped him again, ignoring the blaring siren emitting from him as I fought him back enough to get a decent hold on his other arm and twist it behind him. I could have torn this one from its socket as well but the kind of model he was would no doubt allow him to continue fighting bloodlessly. With absolutely no feeling of pain to register that it needs to stop if it wanted to be salvaged, it would have easily came back for her yet again, and I didn't have the time to constantly be fighting him back when I could hear the coming footsteps from the other horde of idiot bots coming to their companions aid. So I needed to act fast.

Kicking his knee out from under him, I let him fall before reaching for his gun and firing it into his throat area, silencing the alarm for only a moment – I knew – before it started blaring from his chest. But as he got up – struggling as he was with one arm and one good leg – I kicked him back down before I slammed my foot through his chest, effectively silencing him with one last whine of a horn from the, now useless, bot.

"Freaking annoying." I scoffed as I took my foot out of the…carcass I guess before running a hand through my hair and scanning the area, ignoring, the brown-eyed girl on the ground for now. Form what I saw, the bots on their way stopped rushing the moment the alarm was off – another flaw – and were now casually walking to the area. Which still meant that we were no doubt going to be surrounded if we stayed here.

"I'll ask one more time." I started, before turning to her, surprised to see her staring at me in surprise herself. "What is your name?"

"T-Tenten."

"Tenten?" I questioned as I stepped to her with my hand out for her to take. "That's different."

"My father's not from here." She blindly answered after taking my hand despite her attempts to shoo me away earlier. "You saved me?"

"I did."

"Why?"

I fixed her with a glare this time. Finding the answer to that unanswerable question was not the important thing at the moment. So I didn't answer her as I helped her out the rubble. I didn't help her as I watched her bury her husband under the debris, sticking a long piece of a broken wood to mark his place, and I didn't answer her even when she turned back to me and whipped at the tears that fell from her face.

"Why did you save me?" She asked – sigh – again.

Still, though, I didn't answer her. I didn't have a legit answer for her anyways. So I just bent over and picked her up – with no fight surprisingly – before running off to the forest not too far from the village, hoping that it would be a while before we were found and perused.

"Why?" She pried – brown eyes burning through me. "Why did you save me?"

"I don't know." I answered. "I just did…"

She looked at me then, seeming to look for a lie she was no doubt not going to find, especially since it was physically impossible to read a Bot's facial features, then gave up and decided on holding on as tightly as she could as we ran.

Then it happened. The tears came back. She was crying again. About who? That dead man? What good was crying about him going to do for her? He was dead. There was no bringing him back.

I sighed, calming myself since I was sure such rushed, angry thoughts would no doubt make my internal temperatures rise.

…But…then again, why was I angry in the first place.

* * *

 _"Limerence"  
An involuntary state of mind which seems to result  
from a romantic attraction to another person  
combined with an overwhelming,  
obsessive need to have  
one's feelings  
reciprocated  
_

* * *

It wasn't surprising that there was a bounty out for me when I opened my eyes that morning. It was to be expected since, in my rush to leave I completely forgot to destroy the head of the bot that was attacking us…her. If there was one thing that my kind got from that earlier design was the ability to record everything as if we had some kind of photogenic and phonogenic memory, and as such, that bot from earlier no doubt kept the recording of my "serial number" as this Tenten girl calls it along with a recording of my face when I proceeded to destroy his core. So, seeing my name and face come across the screen of my watch was not surprising. But what was surprising was the sight of those same, almost warm, big, brown eyes still staring at me from across the way.

…She stayed.

"Why are you still here?" I asked.

"You can sleep?" She questioned before she unraveled herself from the ball she was in and crawled towards me. "I tried talking to you last night but you wouldn't answer me. After you closed your eyes it was like you were gone to the world around you."

"Since we run on solar power and I used most of mine, I did shut down for a while to reserve what little of my energy I had left till sunrise, yes. Now, please answer –"

"I thought you died." She croaked out as she came to sit beside me. "You weren't responding…and it was getting dark. There was so many sounds I've never heard before all around me and the one person…thing that was around to protect me was not responding. I was afraid."

"Protect you?" I questioned.

She smiled then looked up at me almost impishly, like she was certain of her words before she scooted closer to me and wrapped her arms around herself, holding everything together it seemed. And no matter how attracting it was to see her smile so easily next to a killer like me, the fact of the matter was that she still hadn't answered my question.

I was about to ask again when she stopped me with the simplest of answers. "Of course."

She nodded, like she was reassuring herself of her answer while reminding me of the inevitable. "You've saved me twice already. You could have chosen to kill me like you did my husband but you didn't, and you could have let me die when I was found again but you didn't. I think it's safe to say you won't kill me but you won't let me die either."

She looked at me then, smiling still. "Now, neither of us as sure as to why I'm still alive but regardless of that it's still safer for me to be beside you…for now."

I looked at her for a moment before looking away as the rush of guilt encased me. "You know," I started, "about killing your husband. I was just following my orders."

She laughed then turned to me again. "It's nothing. I'm not really that sad anymore."

That confused me. Why was she not sad? It had only been a night, not even a whole day and she was already over the death of the man she pledged her body and soul to. But before I could ask why, she looked to me and sighed one of relief, almost, and answered my unasked question.

"He wasn't good to me." She began. "My father…he's a good man but he was too old school. That man was a son of a friend of his that he arranged for me to marry almost immediately after my mother died."

She shivered, from either the cold – since it was growing closer to the winter season – or the memory of her marriage. Either way, I thought it a good idea to move closer to her as well, slightly increasing my internal temperature to keep her warmer before I moved my arm around her and refused to look at her, knowing she was going to look at me.

I mean, the worst that could happen was that she pushes me away.

"Anyways…" She began again. "He was an angry man. Always yelling at me and beating me…calling me ugly…He tried to kill me once. I was sleeping and…" she stopped and her face twisted into something vulgar before she shook it away. "…I was sleeping and he was drunk, as usual. He tried to suffocate me. And the worst part about it was that…he was smiling while he did so. He was laughing and saying…something. I couldn't hear him…my ears were ringing."

She stopped again, breathing in to calm herself before she moved to lay her head on my chest, calming almost instantly. "If I hadn't had that…that clock by my bed I would have been dead. If I hadn't hit him hard enough I could have been beaten till even my father couldn't recognize me."

"So," I started. "If you were in such a situation why would you stay? He was hurting you. Not only that but you cried over him and held him like he was a good man. I do not understand."

She smiled again, but this one looked distant and sad. "He was all I had. My father…he died not long after I had gotten married. I couldn't give him any children so I had no one to love me unconditionally to replace him, his family hated me…but he still held me. You wouldn't understand but…despite all that he put me through he was still the only one I had. When he was killed I had mixed emotions about the scenario. It was devastating because I had just lost the last thing that would ever love me, but at the same time I felt…relieved. I felt happy that I wouldn't have to live through that torture again."

I looked at her for a moment then found myself sighing. "I'm sorry, though I may not fully understand, I do not think that what was between you and that man was love."

She laughed then looked at me with those brown eyes, in them, little lights raced around as the rising sun reflected across them. "So what was it to you then?"

"Possession." I answered. "He owned you it seemed. No matter what he did to you, you wouldn't leave. You couldn't leave, according to you. It seemed like you were a possession of his, one he took for granted."

She watched me as I spoke, her face slowly fading from that easy smile to something akin to anger before swiftly switching to understanding. When I was done speaking, she said nothing. She just laid there beside me, releasing the tension she had in her shoulders. I heard her let out a long forgotten, held breath before she wrapped her arms around me as if holding me in my position.

Like I could leave her anyhow.

"We're leaving when the sun comes up, right?" She asked, not waiting for an answer. "I'm going to sleep a little more. I didn't get much earlier."

"Why did you not sleep?"

She sighed, sounding tired all of a sudden. "I was watching you." She answered. "I thought you were dead…and that I was alone …"

I blinked, letting her words sink in for a moment before facing forward towards the sun. Looking at it now, I couldn't help but allow the weight of my situation fall on me. I tried to hide someone, then when she was found, killed the bot that tried to kill her. I forgot to destroy the recordings so my face and name was all over the circuit along with my type and how to properly handle me, and now I was stuck with the very girl that got me in this situation…and she knew I couldn't kill her myself nor let her die if I'm around. Really, I had a lot of baggage all of a sudden and none of it could be helpful with my life on the line like that…and yet…

I looked down at her again, surprised to see that she was already asleep, but made no effort to move away. I did lower my temperature though, since I knew I needed as much energy as I could – and charging while using was very redundant and frankly not helpful.

Looking at her now, I could easily see the recovering wounds she was talking about. The fading black eye, the scabbed over cuts on her cheeks, the still split lip covered in dried blood…All of it stuck out so much now that I was looking at her that it made the newer wounds she got from the attack pale in comparison when it came to accessing the damage.

It took every ounce of consciousness that I had to not touch her more than I already was even though I wanted to. I wanted to heal her of her wounds, I wanted to hold her closer so that she could forget all about the dangers she's been through and the pains she suffered from. But I didn't know why. It made no sense for me to want to comfort her not only because I hardly knew her but also because the thought shouldn't have been programed in the first place. There was no place for sympathy in a man-made weapon.

Unconsciously, I ran my thumb along her arm and watched her relax even more and couldn't help but wonder when the last time she felt so comfortable was. Having lived with such a man as the one she explained there was no way she could have ever felt like how she was feeling now…At least that's what I would like to think…

The sound of the morning birds though quickly brought me out of my distracted state and made me re-realize the exact level of the situation I was in. from what I knew, JNA would never let it be known that there is a bot with a conscious roaming the lands. Their facility would be met with protest and destroyed. Not only that, the bots would then be confiscated and everything they knew would be open to the public. Meaning all the killing that they have been doing – or the population control as they call it – would come back and bite them in the butt.

So, with that being said, it was no surprise that they labeled me as a malfunctioning bot that no longer took orders and was a threat to society. That way no one would hear me out or take my side when I am spotted. It was smart but not smart enough to catch me. Keep me out of their hair yes, but catch me, no.

After all, there was one other bot besides myself that was black listed. I believe she was called…H1-0N4T-04H, She was made after me and was supposed to be better than me, but she malfunctioned and went off the deep end. She's been blacklisted two years ago and hasn't been heard of since. So she was neither killed nor captured otherwise the bounty for her wouldn't still be at large. With that in mind, I could easily do the same thing and go into hiding as she has done…but there's one problem I have that she didn't…

I looked down and sighed in early defeat at the presence of the girl before me. If I had any weaknesses that could possibly cause my demise it would be her. Even though I didn't understand why, she was something I couldn't just let go of that easily. And her being human made things just as hard. I mean, she was someone who stayed with an abusive "husband" because she felt that she had no one else in the world who would be there for her. That alone was enough proof that humans needed contact with other life forms…and I'm not sure if I would be enough, what with my lack of affection and all.

She stirred, and I found myself stiffening until she relaxed again knowing full well that the possibility of her discomfort was because I was an uncomfortable being. Looking at her now, it was questionable from the get go as to why she seemed so comfortable around me and so easily. Just yesterday she was ready to slit my throat – though it would do her no good – and now she was laying on me comfortably as if she had nothing to worry about when she was with me.

And it's not like I could deny it. The sheer pressure that was placed on me the moment she so much as looked my way had me wanting to look away without leaving her side. I wanted her beside me…so that I could keep her safe. Still unsure as to why _she_ only needed to be protected but for sure her safety was the bane of my existence at the moment. I doubt she had ever felt this safe before in her life...but why?

Why were these thoughts plaguing my mind? Why is it that I couldn't find the energy to push her way but had enough to carry her along with me not too long ago? It wasn't like I ran low when she came to rest on me since I had been charging before I closed my eyes, and it wasn't like I didn't have the capacity to hurt her since I killed her husband. So what was it?

She stirred again and this time I tensed and refused to move, choosing to stay on guard least I disturb her again instead of relaxing and possibly getting softer to the touch. She flinched a little, sliding her head down in a harsh angel before jerking it up quickly, smacking her lips and repositioning herself to where she once was before falling victim to her dreams once more and the whole thing just seemed adorable to me.

Humans "slept" differently than we did. Hell, they did everything differently than we did. They cleaned differently, they fought differently, they got energy differently and they cared for things differently. And that last one was something most bots, if not all, didn't have the capacity to do so. Even more reason for why she shouldn't be around me for long.

"What are you thinking about?" She suddenly asked with that smooth, husky voice that I instantly regretted _not_ recording.

"Nothing." I answered without looking down. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you've been making a lot of noise." She answered with a small laugh before she finally looked up. She was smiling then, a sight I was grateful for since I was currently recording this for my long term memory, but it quickly vanished in place of a look of concern as she reached up for my face.

When I flinched away, it came to me as no surprise that any further notion of resistance was nullified with a gently, persistent caress of my cheek, turning my head back towards hers before she cupped my face with her hands and forced my head lower till her eyes were in line with my forehead.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A mark." She answered. "A green mark." She let me go then and I was able to see the concern on her face grow. "It wasn't there before though."


	2. Chapter 2

_"Selcouth"  
unfamiliar, rare,  
strange, and yet  
marvelous  
_

* * *

As it turned out, "the mark" that Tenten had pointed out was that little something new that was added to all bots after one of our checkups. It most likely was the one that followed the disappearance of H1-0N4T-04H as a means to track us since she has yet to be found. It was more than likely some identification mark that told other bots and humans alike that I was a defect or a danger to everyone. Ever since it's been installed there have been three other instances beside my own where the mark has showed up on bots who needed to be captured and all of them were similar models to me, and each of the instances ended in a very painful looking detonation once they managed to get close to said bot.

Aside from that, there wasn't much to say about the mark. It was just another, eye-catching, totally identifiable, unaskable mark that was quickly hidden beneath the dirty remains of Tenten's husband's old shirt sleeve.

Sure I should have been offended from this, but she was trying to protect me in a since. Her hiding my mark brought less attention to it, and the fact that there was dried blood on the cloth made people think twice about assuming that I was a robot instead of an average everyday human. Sure there was the matter of my face, but, again, she hid that with something simple and in no time, I was a bandaged, sunglass wearing, blind human male and she was my wife…partner?...guide?...Anyways, as for her disguise, she dawned a new shirt – we had went back after the area had calmed and cleared to grab a couple of things – and a new hairstyle as well as a heavy pouch full of the coins her husband was keeping from her. To me she would look the same but to anyone else who might have known her she would have been a different person.

Instead of her hair being let down and flowing freely she decided to tie it up into two loose twin buns on the top of her head, mumbling something about how she usually wore it like that when she was younger, but her husband hated it, and instead of the white shirt she had tucked into the long skirt she wore her husband's overalls cuffed at the bottom, and a white knitted sweater. I want to say most of the clothes we both had on – since she dressed me in whatever it was I could fit – had belonged to her husband at some point as did the bags and money and other things. Nothing seemed to be hers save for some torn shirts and one pair of boots.

"You didn't have much did you?" I asked without thinking.

But surprisingly, instead of getting offended like I thought she would, she simply smiled in agreement. "Most of my clothes he either threw away or burned. Then he bought me several plain white shirts and sweaters and two different kinds of skirts before he ended up messing most of those up too."

"What would you do during the winter then?" I asked. "I've never experienced it but I hear it gets pretty cold here. It even snows."

"I just wear what I have." She shrugged. "But now I don't have to. I can dress in cute winter clothes. I'm my own woman again!"

I watched her as she bounced about the path we were walking then looked up towards the sky to try and tell the time. Since I had to get rid of my watch least they track me with it, I had to rely on my knowledge of the placement of the sun to tell what time it was or will be and right about now, it was noonish. We had been walking for several hours and still we were in the woods. We decide to pass the first town we got to, stopping only to buy a couple of things for her to eat and a proper coat for me, and had turned West to find another town to reside in for the time being, but we had no luck in approaching one so far.

And really it was surprising to me how uninvolved the people of that previous town was. All around on the small amount of televisions they did have available, my face was plastered and yet not a single person was aware of me. Some did look at the wanted sign, but since it was a bot that only had proof of attacking another bot, they found no harm in me and tried not too hard to find me. Plus the bounty was too simple. There was no real offer, just some casual hint towards possibly being rewarded – though I was sure that it would eventually change to something that would spark the people's interest – so maybe that was why we were safe for now.

"Look!" She exclaimed, catching my attention.

"What is it?" I asked as I moved towards her.

"Moss!" She smiled. "Moss points towards civilization!"

"That's not true." I scoffed. "Moth just grows on whatever side that's not in direct contact with the sun, otherwise it would not grow well. Who told you that?"

"It's a myth then." She mumbled as a small pout showed on her face. "But we've been traveling for hours and we haven't come across anything yet. What are we going to do if we don't find a town and it gets dark?"

"Then we'll just have to camp out again."

"Ugh!" She complained. Before suddenly dropping to the ground. She wrapped her arms around her legs in an almost childlike manor before bringing her cheek to her knees and sighing. "I'm tired."

"Get up." I sighed. "Why are you suddenly acting like this? It's like you're barely out of your teenage years."

"But that's what I am." She retorted as she stared up at me in all seriousness despite the way her lips poked out.

"You are what?"

"Barely out of my teens. I'm only 22."

I blinked, surprise clearly spanning my features since she met me with a soft smile before standing and dusting herself clean of the dirt and stickers* that stuck to her. When she was sure that she was clean – or at least thought that she was clean – she faced me yet again before answering.

"I told you my father was old school."

"When did he marry you off?"

"I was fifteen. Just got my period the year before and he thought it a good time to have me married. He died when I was 17 without seeing me ever again since we moved out to that dirt town you rescued me from."

"Fifteen." I whispered, letting that information process. "And he was…"

"34 at the time of our marriage."

"That is just insane."

She smiled and cocked her head to the side a little – something I found to mean that she was feeling playful – before she hummed. "I didn't know you had the capability to understand what's crazy and what's not."

"Of course I do." I scoffed. "Tenten you've been around me long enough to know that I am unlike other robots. I have the capability to decipher wrong from right."

"And yet you assisted in killing a town full of people who had done nothing to you nor JNA."

"I was following orders."

"And you clearly have the ability to disobey them too." She chimed as she motioned to herself. "I mean…I'm still alive, aren't I. Not only that, you also demolished a robot companion – "

"He was no companion of mine. Piece of junk."

"…You completely demolished another robot – happy – all for the sake of protecting me…and we're currently on the run form the feds."

"What are you getting at?" I questioned.

She looked at me then, big eyes glassing over in thought before she turned and continued to walk on, knowing that I would follow close behind. She put her hands behind her back, intertwined her fingers – not with mine – then swung them up and back against her rear before she finally sighed. "I know me asking you this is redundant by now but…why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you save me?" She stopped then and turned to me. "Why did you choose to disobey orders, something you clearly could have done for everyone else but didn't, and save me not once but twice? What did I do to you? Do you know me from somewhere?"

"Yesterday was the first time I've ever seen you that I am aware of."

"Then why did you save me?"

This time I was the one who was just going to stare. Of course I still didn't know why I helped her. I hadn't thought about it since she first asked. All I had been thinking about was trying to find some way for us to escape…for us to live peacefully.

I shrugged for her answer finally, and she pouted before turning around. She wasn't angry for long though. I found that it took a lot to truly grind her gears, and the moment we overcame a hill that looked down upon a town at the foot of it, she probably forgot all about my lack of answers to her questions.

…So why was it still bothering me? Surely, I had no reason to be bothered about it – I wasn't even sure if that was an emotion I was able to carry – and yet I was. But why? Why did I save her?

"Maybe I found you to be important." I whispered, hoping that she wouldn't hear. But the graceful turn and easily spreading smile on her face was enough to prove that my hopes were thoroughly crashed.

"Me?" She asked with a laugh that tainted the air around me. "You found me important? You didn't even know me?"

"…You don't have to know someone or something to think that it is important." I answered before shrugging again. "Any way's that's about the only answer I can give you, and even then it is still a "maybe" situation itself."

"Maybe is better than I don't know." She hummed before a wide smile spread across her face and she started running ahead of me, downhill. "I see a town." She called back. "I told you so!"

"That was happenstance." I answered as I followed behind her in a calmer pace. "And slow down. We still have to think of a strategy before we get in there."

"Maybe they won't know you like the other town?" She started, being the ever so optimistic one. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"This town is bigger than the one we just left from." I sighed. "The amount of people in poverty may be higher and so the thought of a reward would be more enticing to them."

"Then just put on your disguise again." She complained as she came to a stop. "Honestly, why did you take it off in the first place?"

"It's getting dark. The fabric is too thin to hide the glow. I would have needed something new anyways."

She stared after me for a moment, seeming to acknowledge what it was I had said before she went to her bag and started digging, "I think I have a hat in here somewhere. If you pull it down over the mark until we can get you something else."

"Do you think that'll be it?"

"It should." She smiled as she handed me the hat. "If you keep on the shades and I guide you around people will just think that you're blind again."

"What does that make you then?" I asked, mostly out of curiosity than anything else.

"Your caretaker…or maybe a sister. How old are you anyways…like design wise not actual years?"

I sighed. As always, she was…hyper with her questions. Always spewing them out one after the other, knowing that I would be able to remember and answer them all. Still, what got me the most, surprisingly, was the fact that she saw me as a brother. It hurt – I think – a little more than I would have liked it to but I still answered her despite my dislike towards her answer to my own questions.

"I was designed to look 25." I answered. "It has been 10 years since I was created though but only 3 since I was able to go on these expeditions."

"Why now?" She pressed as she stepped over a particularly big rock.

"Probably because of H1-0N4T-04H and her escape. 4 years ago she escaped and everyone was brought back and reinstalled with some new updates to prevent something like that happening again only 6 months after."

"And the update was that mark?" She started as she reached forward, brushing her fingers across the green glowing scar. "Will it ever go away?"

"Probably not. Not unless I die that is."

"I don't want that."

"Why? Because I have to protect you?"

"No…well that too, but it would make me sad if you died."

I looked at her for a moment more as I watched her drop her hand and head slowly, refusing to look me in the eyes and answer my unasked question. Something that simple from her though, made me so much more…eager (?) to know her answer. I thought to press her but I didn't know how so I kind of just stood there waiting until…

"I think you've become something of importance to me too." She answered after some time. She then looked up a little, keeping her eyes glued to the ground before turning her tongue around in her mouth as if she was contemplating whether or not she liked her own answer before finally looking up at me and smiling. "Kind of like you find me, right?"

It took me some time to process her answer, or rather, stop replaying it in my mind, but once I was sure that the time that had passed between us was too long I blinked and started walking ahead. "Then I guess we should be careful…the both of us."

"Yes!" She smiled as she hoked her arms with mine and we walked through the brush towards the curve of the path into the upcoming town.

* * *

 _"Reckless"  
without thinking or caring about  
the consequences of  
an action  
_

* * *

I have lived for a significantly shorter amount of time than the girl prancing around, towing me along. But still, I can say, without a doubt, I have seen so much more than she has. Having been stashed away in a tattered house with her abusive husband for 7 plus years it was safe to say the girl had barely seen or been anywhere, let alone met many people. So maybe that's why she seemed the least bit phased by the smiling woman selling her some apples by the street. As for myself, I found that I didn't trust a smile with that many teeth showing. Even she didn't smile that brightly when she was talking about something she found interesting and yet this woman, selling apples in her patch-work dress and tattered rag and shoes, smiled as if the money she could possibly get from this wouldn't be of great help to her. It bothered me, so I moved her. I pressured her into moving along every time some poorly dressed or desperately smiling individual came towards us and quickly guided her to the nearest hotel to get a room set for us despite her protest.

"I don't understand your strong phobia of the poor, Neji." She sighed as she flopped – for lack of a better word – on the bed smiling despite the words that left her. "Those people were just trying to make a living. That's all."

"And what are you doing?" I asked as I sat beside her and removed the shades at least. "You do not have much to your name either to be thinking of helping other people out."

"It's food though." She argued as she turned to me. "So there's a legit reason for me buying apples."

"Correction." I retorted. " _An_ apple. You bought one apple and let her keep the change."

She smacked her lips at me before sitting up and moving towards the other side of the bed to look me in the eyes. She looked like she was going to retort – as usual – but instead her eyes went up towards the mark on my head. "It's really bright now that I'm looking at it in this room and all. Maybe we should turn the lights on?"

"It's late though." I sighed as I laid back. "It'll only bother you and bring attention to us if we keep the light on."

"But I'm sure this thing drains you." She started as she stood and approached me catching me in a vulnerable position. She sat beside me and eyed me for a moment before she reached out her hand and caressed the mark gently while her eyes seemed to be focusing on something so much further.

"What are you thinking?"

She looked at me then, blinking back into existence before she finally smiled and fell over on my chest dramatically. "Nothing much." She answered. "Just…wondering why the people who made us, who are supposed to love us unconditionally…could be the same people who hurt us so."

"This doesn't hurt though."

"But it makes you out to be an outcast." She responded as she sat up, allowing me to sit up as well. "You can't even walk around freely anymore. I mean, if bots even have the authority to do that, but if they did you couldn't because of that mark."

"It's not that serious."

"Yes it is!" She yelled, getting more and more emotional as she pushed me down – granted I didn't fight back. "It is serious. This…this thing blocks you. It's a sign of ownership, a sign that no one will be able to-to save you because you…you, I don't know, have this scar right in front of everyone and no one notices it so you get this thought that people really could care less and that scar becomes an insecurity of your and-and…and…"

"Are you okay?" I asked after she finally calmed down – or rather ran out of things to say. "You look like you're more effected than I am."

"Well…that's because…because –"

"Because what, Tenten."

She looked at me then, eyes brimming with tears before she finally fell forward and buried her face into my chest and cried. "Because it hurts. Doesn't it? Knowing that even now, even after you've left them you're still being controlled…monitored even."

Silence was about the only thing that transpired between us after that. Silence and the constant running of thoughts through my mind as I sat there blankly while she cried…but not just for me. I knew something else was behind those tears. After all, I was a robot, one who killed her husband – granted he was a horrible excuse of a human being – and destroyed her home, and I honestly think that I deserve none of this coming from someone who still has the gall to smile even after all that she had been put through.

"Let me see." I sighed as I made her look up again, wiping at the tears that my thumbs could reach before I moved her bangs out of the way, revealing a long, pink scar across her forehead. It took a moment for her to get another reaction out of me besides just blindly staring at it, but when she tried to smile at me again despite the clear damage she felt from such a mark, I couldn't help but feel it…somewhere.

"We're twinsies." She chuckled sadly as I rubbed my thumb across the scar, allowing my thoughts to roam into darker territories as I imagined the damage, the ridicule she must have felt to have begged this man for her own life.

"Neji?" She cooed, breaking my thoughts – and my steady tracing of the pattern of the scar. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I answered as I grabbed the hat she had and pulled it back over my scar. I was about to lay down when I saw how disheveled she looked and moved to fix her up as well long before I could stop myself from doing so.

"You really have the freedom of thought, huh?"

"Yes and no." I answered as I finally laid back. "I can think whatever I want but my thoughts get recorded and stored whenever I get back to base."

"Are you planning to go back to base?"

"No." I scoffed. "They'll just kill me."

She looked at me then, eyes going blank before she moved closer and grabbed my shirt almost as if I was going to leave her in the middle of the night. "I wouldn't like that."

"I'm not going anywhere, Tenten."

"Ever?" She asked as she looked up at me with those same brown eyes that first captivated me, except this time, there was no hatred in them. The caring look she gave that dead man – I'm sorry, her husband – was now fixed towards me and at that moment, I felt that I had no choice but to promise her whatever it was she ever wanted.

But, before I could even get to promising her like I wanted, I was hit, immediately by a strong wave of pain, shooting through my whole body and stationing at my head where my mark was, and I don't remember screaming, but I was sure that some sound of pain came from me seeing as Tenten was over me, calling to me – I assume, since I could no longer hear her.

By the time I regained my consciousness, the door to our room was kicked in and we were staring into the beady eyes of a horde of those inferior bots and one very familiar, bespectacled face. "N3-1J61-00!" she exclaimed as she walked into the room. "Finally found you."

"Where are the rest of them…" I managed to ask as I stared on in anger at the group of inferiors staring blankly, emotionlessly at their "target". "Where is the rest of my….my family."

"The others like you have all been left behind. They, like you, have way too much emotions and…connections, if I must to others like them. I was afraid that if they saw you getting demolished they would all revolt, especially since I've spent years almost, instilling the idea of "family" to you guys. It would hurt me so if all of my children just up and left me for their brother."

I scoffed, finally able to sit up a little with a little help from Tenten. "You just don't want them to learn fear."

"Fear?" She laughed as she eyed Tenten who scurried behind me at the sudden eye contact. "Silly. Fear does not exist to your kind. I made sure that emotion wasn't factored in."

"But you didn't stop us from being able to _learn_ something, now did you?" I asked as I pushed Tenten further behind my back. "That didn't cross your mind as something we should be able to do."

To this she seemed bothered. Her usual smile was gone in place of a heavy set scowl and her bubbly atmosphere was replaced by something so vile and dark that I couldn't quite put a name to the emotion that emitted from her being.

Then it was back, the pain that shot through my whole being before circling back to my head where it stayed and grew. I could vaguely hear the sound of Tenten's crying and screaming, but aside from those muffled sounds all I could hear was the sound of my "heart" as this woman wants us to referred to it as, pumping loudly against my chest, growing louder and louder the longer I felt this way.

"See," that woman howled, her usual smile back on her face. "You _felt_ that too didn't you. You felt that pain that's because with that new update that mark is in the part of your motherboard systems that controls the nerves I gave you making it more painful for you."

"Neji?" Tenten interrupted softly in that sad, weeping voice she carried, and I was back to looking at her, eyes alert and heart rate slowing back to a regular pace the moment I felt her hands on me. "Neji are you okay?"

I nodded despite the surge of pain that was still shooting through my body if only to make her feel just a little better about this whole situation. It was weird really, how someone who, before, only made me feel anxious and worried is currently the very thing that was calming me and making me forget about all the pain.

"Is this the girl you risked your life for?" Came that woman's voice again, instantly catching my attention once again. I couldn't see for myself, nor could I feel how I was reacting to her words, but I could easily tell because of her amused reaction, that whatever face I gave her answered her just perfectly.

"She's rather…average. Mommy doesn't really approve." She waved her hand and those waiting inferiors rose their weapons, each and every one of them pointing at her. "Kill her."

"No!" I growled, again before I could think, and launched forward, managing to grab both a lamp and Tenten before covering over her completely, using what little of my energy had left to activate my shield and better protect her while those bastards damn near shot their whole arsenal at us.

"Neji…I –"

I'll get you out of this." I coughed, feeling my energy drain out of me just as the others stopped shooting.

"Really now, N3-1J61-00, how childish of you. I expected more from you. But to protect this…thing…why, I'm quite –"

I threw the lamp, successfully cutting her monologue off when it hit her directly in the mouth. Confused and now lost, the remaining bots by the door rushed towards her as she screamed out in pain, giving me just enough time to take Tenten out the door, but not enough time to hear her give a last minute order.

"Stop them."

With cruel loyalty, I grabbed Tenten and brought her close to my chest just as a rather heavy boot crossed my face and we were both flying out the nearest wall and into the main street where the people who were gathering for the nightlife scattered immediately at the sound of the ruckus. I barely had enough time to compose myself and see if Tenten was okay when another surge of pain ripped through my body and I was falling over her weakly, cringing all over again as my silent cries drowned out the rest of the world around me momentarily.

"You shouldn't have done that, N3-1J61-00." That woman snarled as she jumped down from the hotel knowing that the bots following her would catch her. "I didn't want to get the people here involved at all, but it seems you weren't content with just you and that girl being demolished. Now I have to get rid of everyone else here."

She looked at me then, smiling that disgustingly clean smile towards me before pointing at me and Tenten. "Starting with you two."

And again, despite my pain, I was over her, shielding her to the best of my abilities as the bullets practically charged me. I tucked her further underneath me just as one of my arms completely dislocated from the socket with a particularly, placed bullet, and as if that wasn't enough, she set off the mark again and I was crying out in silent pain yet again while Tenten lay beneath me crying.

"Why do this for a girl who's going to die anyways?" She screamed, managing to get through to me despite the deafening sound of my pounding heart in my ears.

"Neji." I heard her – Tenten – whine.

"Just give up!"

"Neji please."

"Your destruction would have been less painful and public had you just listened."

"Stop this. Please. You're dying?"

"Why are you being this difficult?"

"Why are you doing this?" She whispered as she reached for the loose, tattered cloth that still managed to cover part of my chest. "Why are you risking it all for me?"

"Because I…" I started, as this feeling, one I've never felt before, washed over me. And, at that moment, as I was about to answer her, I had never felt more sure in my life. Not even as one bullet managed to pierce me through the head, nearly clearing out a whole chunk of my motherboard system, did I falter in finally answering her with the one thing I was sure of at that moment.

"Because I l-love y-you."

That was when everything grew quite. My hearing was knocked out, I was sure, and my "sensors" were definitely fried seeing as I was no longer feeling the pain from the mark nor the slight ones coming from the missing limbs – one arm, a whole leg and a leg from the knee down. My sight even started to fade so I couldn't even see the reaction she would have given me. Nor could I hear her crying voice. Not anymore. I couldn't do anything anymore actually. I was even falling forward, no longer being able to hold myself up any longer, it was that sad.

And yet, as sad as it was for myself, the only thing I could think was how sorry I was towards Tenten…Sorry that I got her in this mess…and that I couldn't even get her out.

" _Tenten."_ I heard her voice echo, possibly from my unconscious want to hear her voice, to see her face, once more. Even if it was just from my memories of the horrible times I showed her.

" _You saved me…Why?"_

" _I'll just call you…Neji."_

" _You can sleep?"_

" _I thought you were dead…and that I was alone …"_

" _What are you thinking about?"_

I felt myself smile even though I was in no position to do so, then sighed sadly just as her face popped in front of me, blinding me almost with her beauty even when she was crying. I thought it was a sin almost for someone to seem that beautiful to me in the situation we were in but still, the last thought that crossed me upon seeing her just before everything went black was: Ah! I really do love this girl.

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* * *

 _"Reintegrate"  
To make whole again;  
restore to a perfect state;  
to renew  
_

* * *

The flash of light that glinted in front of me was shocking, but not as much as the completely new-to-me face that greeted me with slightly bewildered eyes that were immediately replaced with this far-off look instead. His mouth moved but no sound came out, and I guess because of my reaction he understood and started tampering with something just out of my sight before a loud ringing sound hit me just as sharp as the light had.

"Can you hear me now?" He came back with a voice as dead as his eyes looked.

"Yes." I answered. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"Too many questions." He sighed as he moved back to the area beside me. "I'll explain after I diagnose your condition. Tell me your s…I mean your name?" He asked as he came back into view with a clipboard in hand.

"My name?"

"You do remember that right? Well, it wouldn't be surprising if you didn't. When we got to you they already managed to dismantle half of you including part of your head so –"

"Neji." I interrupted, closing my eyes in slight irritation. "My name is Neji. If you wanted my serial number then it's N3-1J61-00."

He looked at me as I spoke with eyes slowly filling to the brim with interest before he leaned in. "She named you?" he asked. "She gave you a name and you responded to it too?"

"She?" I questioned before looking around wildly. "Is she here? Is she alright? Where is she?"

"Who is she?" He asked with a knowing smile – or rather a smirk.

"Tenten!" I near screamed before finally moving after realizing that I had the ability to do so. I reached for one side of the belts despite the guys lazy protests and ripped the straps holding me down but when I tried to get the other side out I noticed something…different.

"Where's my other arm?"

"I haven't attached it back yet." He sighed. "The damage to the right side was too sever so we had to scrap your old limbs and make you new ones. Your other leg though was only partially missing though so making the leg for that part wasn't as hard as the others. But, despite how advanced you are, even you couldn't walk that well on one leg and no arm."

"Where is Tenten?" I asked again. "Is she alright?"

"She's fine."

"Where is she?"

He sighed as he pushed his chair over to the opposite end of the room and pressed some buttons, making an image of an empty hall show. "She's with Hinata. Or rather, H1-0N4T-04H."

"You know her?"

"I helped design her so yeah I know her." He answered as he turned back to me after showing Tenten and H1-0N4T-04H on the screen.

The moment I saw her again I could feel myself calm down and hear my body stop working so hard to fix its self. Granted the presence of H1-0N4T-04H beside her along with another person I've never seen before did upset me but seeing her smiling face – almost – completely unscathed was all I needed to calm down apparently.

"So you were marked as a defect too." That dull man quipped, getting my attention again as he rolled back to me. "Honestly, to me, you two are nothing close to a defect. Having learned to have emotions and feelings you weren't originally programed to have is an amazing feat. However, it's incredibly hard to hide AI that advanced. You would eventually start to feel hatred towards the hold they have on you and come out, destroying everything they tried to hide so I get it…that's why I said I wouldn't go through with the program."

"You've been rambling on about being part of the reason why I was created for some time now but I've never even heard of nor seen you around when we were made. So, who exactly are you?"

"Right…" he started, "…introductions. People do those."

"Who are you?" I asked again, this time with a little more force in my voice.

He looked up at me then, smiling for some reason, then sighed as he stood and moved to unstrap the other half of my body, successfully throwing me off balance as I fell forward. "My name is Nara Shikamaru. I was the one who designed and created the AI system that you and Hinata run on", He sighed as he helped me to a chair where he began strapping me back up before he continued.

"But, since I refused to go through with actually making you guys JNA fired me and any member of my staff that was loyal to me, stole my data, then hired some wacko with glasses and a bad perm to take my place, and, just as I predicted, some of the bots made on AI started going "haywire" and Hinata was the first of them. Except, haywire, for them was bots "evolving" in a since. So, far, you and Hinata were the only ones who lived after that incident. Her because they never saw it coming, and you because –"

"You saved us."

He nodded then stood back, eyeing his work before continuing. "Unfortunately for us, and you, the damage that JNA freak had inflicted on you was almost enough to permanently destroy your system all together. We almost couldn't salvage you. You know, since your mother board was almost completely fried and your core system was gone we were sure that you would just be another scrap pile, but that girl –"

"Tenten."

"…Tenten…she insisted that we fix you. Like, while everyone was fighting the older modeled bots, she was crying and holding what was left of you and begging us to save you rather than herself. If it wasn't for that we would have just left you to your own devices."

"Why are you helping me anyways?"

"I want to stop JNA." He answered simply before he started pushing me out of the room, down a hall with dim lights and silver, metal walls. "Unbeknownst to them, not everyone in the world is stupid enough to believe that JNA's bots were made only to serve. In fact, some started distrusting JNA the moment they received their praise for their military bots success in recent wars. Which is why a lot of people, myself included, wouldn't see it past JNA to be the ones who were destroying old villages and small towns."

"But how would you know it was JNA?" I asked. "As far as they're concerned they killed anyone who could possibly know about the invasions."

"Like I said, not everyone is stupid enough to fully trust JNA."

I cocked my head. "You have witnesses?"

"About three. They were daughters or sons of parents killed. One of them is with Tenten and Hinata in that room I showed you. He was the reason Hinata "went haywire" and was hunted by JNA. And no, he didn't do anything to her. He doesn't have the knowledge capacity – no offense to him – to even begin to understand how complex a bot Hinata is."

"So what happened?"

"She developed feelings for him." He breathed out a small chuckle before continuing as expected. "Sound familiar."

"It seems like it's rather easy for my kind to develop such a feeling."

"That's because I designed you that way. It was a hidden code in the program. One that was so embedded it would be impossible to find or get rid of. So I expect that She-witch with the glasses hadn't exactly found the code yet. Otherwise you would have never gone off with one of the victims instead of killing her off like the others."

He stopped me by a door before walking over to the front of the chair and bending down to get a good look at me as a sigh escaped him warily. "I'm telling you all of this because I want you to help by the way. I feel like I've said it before but I think I need to repeat myself."

"What if I refuse?"

"We'll still fix you up." He sighed as he stood and started to input a code into the keypad at the door. "But we won't be able to guarantee yours and that girl's safety. You may be in the clear since that woman thought she killed you off, but the girl isn't."

The door opened. Voices, unfamiliar and familiar, sounded, getting my nerves wired as he moved back to the other side of the chair and started pushing me into the area.

"So it's up to you." He stated just as the people sitting in the area turned to see who was entering.

I recognized Hinata almost immediately – her pale eyes and skin was an indicator of my kind – but the raw emotion that filtered out of her was something I was unprepared for, just as I wasn't prepared for the force that slammed against me, nearly knocking the chair back.

"You're alive!" The girl – _she_ – cried as she nuzzled her face into the crook of my neck. "You're actually alive."

"Did you think I would die that easily, Tenten." I sighed. At that moment, I wanted nothing more but to wrap my arms around her, but I currently only had one useful arm and it wasn't even completely fixed itself to begin with.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as she looked up with tears draining from her eyes. "God, you look horrible."

I couldn't help but smile at her comment before pulling her in to the best of my abilities with my one "good" arm, and felt her calm in my embrace. Her heart rate dropped, her tears stopped, and her skin was gaining the color that it once held, back. She was becoming herself again.

"Are you okay?" She asked, to which I nodded and looked her over.

She, surprisingly, was just fine. Save for a few scratches here and there from our first encounter, she looked unscathed from the bout before. Her eyes still had that glow that attracted me the first time too and for once, I was glad that it was finally projected towards me with content rather than annoyance or hatred.

"You don't look hurt at all."

"She was protected." Hinata began. Good thing too, I was starting to believe that she wasn't going to talk when I was around. "You did good. Not a scratch on her."

"We also managed to get in there and end that whole fiasco before they started opening fire on the townspeople." Shikamaru added. "So you don't have to worry about them either."

Tenten smiled upon hearing that before going back to stroking what was left of my hair. To see the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eye even after seeing me in such a condition, was the most bliss I felt since I got here. To me, it showed that she cared for me. Regardless of the heap pile that I have become, she still liked me.

Not only that, but she seemed happy. Before I came in there was a smile on her face as she talked to Hinata. She showed no signs of being in distress or discomfort either. She was just happy. Almost as if she was enjoying herself here. Almost as if…she belonged here.

"You said you're trying to stop JNA?" I asked, getting the room to grown quiet.

There had been two new presences since we entered the room, a blond that went to Hinata, immediately making her smile from ear to ear, and a black haired boy who followed the blond who seemed surprised that I could speak. Behind me, I heard Shikamaru shift his stance.

"That's what I would like." Shikamaru sighed. "We all do."

"And you can promise to keep her safe from them?" I asked, not specifying because I was sure everyone knew who I was referring to.

"Scouts honor." The blond answered. "We'll protect here with everything we got if needed."

Shikamaru stepped inside then, nodding his agreement as the black-haired boy stared on in interest. "It'll be like she's part of the family. There's more people here then you would know. They'll make her feel at home."

I nodded then looked at Tenten. The whole time she was moving about, trying to follow the voice of whoever was speaking with her whole head. When she finally looked back at me, her eyes seemed to process all of the information before softening a little and she went back to stroking my hair.

"I go where you go." She cooed.

"Okay." I answered back before looking up at Shikamaru with a new kind of determination. "I'm in."

 _End  
_

*I'm from the south (in the U.S.) and I don't know if people up north even have these things in their grass or if they do what they might call them but we call them sticker bugs. They are not bugs but are small spikey plant things I guess that stick to people's clothes and skin if they were fresh enough. I hate them and they hurt but they are not hard to take off if there are not many of them.


End file.
